• What is a Higgs particle?

• How do you make a Higgs? Use the Large Hadron Collider

• What is the Large Hadron Collider?

• Why do cosmologists care?

protons, neutrons, electrons

Physics is the science of matter and energy and their interactions.

Mattermolecules

atoms

quarks

Interactions

• gravitational• electromagnetic• weak nuclear• strong nuclear

Hadrons are particles made of quarks

protons, neutrons, electrons

Physics is the science of matter and energy and their interactions.

Mattermolecules

atoms

quarks

Interactions

• gravitational• electromagnetic• weak nuclear• strong nuclear

Interactions

(photon)

(electron)

(electron)

HHiggs

The Standard Model

W

uup

ccharm

ttop

ddown

sstrange

bbottom

νee neutrino

νμμ neutrino

νττ neutrino

eelectronμ

muonτ

tauon

photon

!

ggluon

ZZ boson

W boson

Qua

rks

Lept

ons

“For

ce”

Car

rier

s

Higgs Mechanism

Higgs Mechanism

Higgs Mechanism

Higgs Mechanism

Text

LHC Facts

• LHC circumference is 27 km (17 miles)

• vfinal = 99.9999991% c

• Efinal = 7 TeV (Equivalent mass = 7,000 mproton)

• 1,232 superconducting magnets (11,800 Amperes)

• Magnetic field = 8.3 Tesla

• Particles orbit 10,000 per sec

• Typical particle travels to Neptune and back twice before it collides (15 hrs)

• Particles travel in 2,808 bunches of 100 billion protons

What is the universe made of?

• What is Dark Matter?

‣ Higgs→SUSY→WIMPS

• What is Dark Energy?

‣ Is it some kind of weird Higgs-like particle?

71%

25%

4%

Ordinary MatterDark MatterDark Energy

Where is the antimatter?

• Does the Strong Interaction prefer matter over antimatter?

• Do axions exist?

What was the universe like immediately after the Big Bang?

Higgs Particle Discovered• Does the Higgs exist? YES!

• What is the Higgs mass? 129 times the mass of a proton.

• Is there more than one kind? We don’t thinks so, but not sure yet.

• What are the implications for Dark Energy and Dark Matter? Don’t know yet.

Black Hole Physics

• Escape speed is greater than the speed of light

• Depends on mass and radius

• Sun’s RSch = 30 km

RSch =2GM

c2

LHC Black Hole

• Assume all of energy of both protons goes to produce the BH

• E = 2 x 7 TeV so M = 14,000 mp

• RSch = 4 x 10-26 ym (about 10-40 of the size of an atom)

• Doomsday approaches as the BH begins to “gobble” nearby matter!

NOTE: 1 yoctometer = 1 x 10-24 m

Hawking saves the day!

Evaporation time for a sun-sized BH is 1057 times the age of the universe!

tevap = 2560!2R

2Sch

M

h

P

Evaporation of LHC Black Hole

• tevap =1.3 x 10-60 ys

• Max distance before evaporation ( c x tevap ) is 3.9 x 10-52 ym = 1.0 x 10-26 RSch

• BH won’t have time to gobble anything!

P

What if Hawking is wrong?

• Cosmic rays have up to 7 million times the energy of the LHC particles

• Cosmic ray should produce BHs too

• Cosmic rays BH would “gobble” neutron stars and white dwarf stars

• We see lots of neutron stars and white dwarfs

Summary

Interactions

Electrical

Magnetic

Gravitational

Weak Nuclear

Strong Nuclear

Electromagnetic

Weak Nuclear

(1864)

(~1964) Electroweak

Gravitational

Strong Nuclear

First Generation Particle Collider Rutherford, Geiger, and Marsden 1909